Al Gore’s Apple Stock Options Net Him $29.5 Million

Al Gore is making everyone jealous with his Apple stock options. The options, which allow the former vice president to buy Apple’s stock for cheap, netted him a total of $29.5 million.

Gore is a director on Apple’s board. Because of this, he was able to exercise an option to purchase almost 60,000 shares of the tech giant’s stock for just $7.48 per share.

While the total cost of $445,000 may seem like a lot, Gore recently sold his Current TV venture to Al Jazeera for $500 million, reports CNBC.

So, despite paying the basement price for his new Apple stock, the former vice president can actually afford to pay the market price of about $500 per share.

Gore owned about 20 percent of Current TV — worth an estimated $100 million. Because of this, the environmental crusader is now worth about $300 million.

The information about Al Gore’s Apple stock purchase was made available through a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.

CNet notes that this is not the first time that the former vice president exercised stock options at the low price. He previously did so in January 2008 and again in March 2008.

The purchase may not seem like the best idea, because Apple’s stock has been falling in recent weeks. At the same time, if could be good if the company releases good results for their last quarter. After he joined Apple’s board of directors in 2003, Gore was also awarded 30,000 stock options, though those ones carry an exercise price of $14.95 per share.

According to calculations, Al Gore still has 61,574 Apple stock shares that he can exercise at bargain prices, should he choose to do so.